Donate to Help Black Children Appear in Children’s Books

The Library of Congress reports 15,000 to 20,000 new children’s books published every year. In 2013, 2012, or any recent year, how many of those showed Black boys as the main characters? Girls? Please name those books.

It is time for a SEQUEL! Family relationships were explored and affirmed in my joyful anthology of poems celebrating the diversity of African American families, shown above. In this book, I collaborated with his mother, noted educator Dorothy Strickland, to bring us this warm collection. Rich and powerful poems by Eloise Greenfield, Lucille Clifton, and others are rooted in deeply felt values of belonging and mutual respect.

He quoted a librarian who said; At the risk of sounding desperate, can anyone name me just ONE middle grade novel published in 2013 starring an African-American boy?

“She later followed up with a post listing all the books published in 2013 featuring African-American boys as main characters,” this famous black Young Adult author added. “If I’m counting correctly, the number is somewhere around eight. Maybe ten, when you count some of the small publishers.”

This makes me sad too. Friends have pointed to two or three books — that is awful since the Library of Congress reports 15,000 to 20,000 new children’s books published every year. So I choose to be a part of the solution, and will write, compile and collect a sequel to Families: Poems Celebrating the African American Experience. Black children will be the main characters, and I will have a special emphasis on those missing black boys.

Money donated will help with expenses related to the book, including hiring an illustrator; writing time; copyright permissions; phone and technology expenses for interviews and research; office materials; and professional manuscript reviewers.

INVISIBLE CHILDRENGift Cards to stores such as OfficeMax, Staples, WalMart, Fred Meyer, and other chains are also welcome.

Please help us make a change for the in children’s books.

My book, “Hairucts at Sleepy Sam’s” tells the story of me and my three brothers on our trips to the barber shop, growing up in Orange, New Jersey.

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